Hi Guys,
In supplying some interior door handles to Lance at DS motors last year, I had to do some homework on the differences on our AU ADR DS's and the DS's in Europe
DS rear door locks, as I understand it?
On external door handle cars, pre ADR's, it was the interior door handle that kept the lock mechanism in the locked position, and the little tab in the handle stoped the lever from coming back and opening the door. So the handle and the lock worked at keeping the door shut.
On the later flush door handle cars, the door lock mechanism stays locked on it own, once the door is shut, the lever on the interior handle only operated the unlocking mechanism, and plays no role in keeping the mechanism locked, while the door is shut, and the little tab is only a cover, and plays no role in the operation of the lock.
So on European cars, you can operate the lock at any time (unless the childproof setting is switched), by simply pulling the lever back, and the little tab is inconsequential?
On post 03/72 Australian design rule cars, the design rule said that you can’t be able to open the rear door unless there is two movements to open the door at the opening lever, ie: press one part to enable the second part to be moved to then open the door.
So my thinking is, the factory achieved this by fitting interior door handles similar in operation to the earlier cars (external door handle cars). These handles required two movements to operate the lever, but now, the handle plays no role in keeping the lock mechanism itself in the closes position. So in fact it was sort of deadlocked from the inside? The lock mechanism itself was locked, and the operating lever on the handle was locked.
The lever on the rear door handle for Australian cars, was always the shorter one, so that they didn't interfere with the AU front seat headrests.
There is no problem replacing the AU interior rear door handle with the standard European door handle, the locking mechanism & handle working now as in the European car. I found the rear passenger always found it difficult to operate the later AU interior door handles, and often felt trapped in the back. This was probably the same with external door handle DS's?
The parts book shows there were special lock mechanisms for the front and rear door for Australia (also US and Canada), but my reading of our design requirement, and the comparison of a European locking mechanism, to one of our ADR locks, shows that they are fundamentally the same lock, but some components are beefed up, probably to comply with the anti burst requirements for our ADR’s
Our ADR’s were really just a mirror image of the American and Canadian regulations. On the previous external door locking mechanisms, on the last versions of this model, special plates were added to the door catches on the pillars, for US and Canadian cars, so that the locks became burst proof.
Its an interesting conclusion, but the way I see it, if Citroen had pulled out of the US market earlier, and not delivered DS21’s with full compliance in the door lock department, had Australia had to go it alone in having these parts built or modified, and not the need for compliance for the US etc, Australian may not have had any DS23’s at all?
Best regards,
Greg
In supplying some interior door handles to Lance at DS motors last year, I had to do some homework on the differences on our AU ADR DS's and the DS's in Europe
DS rear door locks, as I understand it?
On external door handle cars, pre ADR's, it was the interior door handle that kept the lock mechanism in the locked position, and the little tab in the handle stoped the lever from coming back and opening the door. So the handle and the lock worked at keeping the door shut.
On the later flush door handle cars, the door lock mechanism stays locked on it own, once the door is shut, the lever on the interior handle only operated the unlocking mechanism, and plays no role in keeping the mechanism locked, while the door is shut, and the little tab is only a cover, and plays no role in the operation of the lock.
So on European cars, you can operate the lock at any time (unless the childproof setting is switched), by simply pulling the lever back, and the little tab is inconsequential?
On post 03/72 Australian design rule cars, the design rule said that you can’t be able to open the rear door unless there is two movements to open the door at the opening lever, ie: press one part to enable the second part to be moved to then open the door.
So my thinking is, the factory achieved this by fitting interior door handles similar in operation to the earlier cars (external door handle cars). These handles required two movements to operate the lever, but now, the handle plays no role in keeping the lock mechanism itself in the closes position. So in fact it was sort of deadlocked from the inside? The lock mechanism itself was locked, and the operating lever on the handle was locked.
The lever on the rear door handle for Australian cars, was always the shorter one, so that they didn't interfere with the AU front seat headrests.
There is no problem replacing the AU interior rear door handle with the standard European door handle, the locking mechanism & handle working now as in the European car. I found the rear passenger always found it difficult to operate the later AU interior door handles, and often felt trapped in the back. This was probably the same with external door handle DS's?
The parts book shows there were special lock mechanisms for the front and rear door for Australia (also US and Canada), but my reading of our design requirement, and the comparison of a European locking mechanism, to one of our ADR locks, shows that they are fundamentally the same lock, but some components are beefed up, probably to comply with the anti burst requirements for our ADR’s
Our ADR’s were really just a mirror image of the American and Canadian regulations. On the previous external door locking mechanisms, on the last versions of this model, special plates were added to the door catches on the pillars, for US and Canadian cars, so that the locks became burst proof.
Its an interesting conclusion, but the way I see it, if Citroen had pulled out of the US market earlier, and not delivered DS21’s with full compliance in the door lock department, had Australia had to go it alone in having these parts built or modified, and not the need for compliance for the US etc, Australian may not have had any DS23’s at all?
Best regards,
Greg
